The healthy home makeover every family needs

Published 15 April 2015

Is your home making you sick? We might be able to help

This time last year, mum Teokotai Tau was struggling to cope with a damp, mouldy home, high power bills, and five children sleeping together in one room to stay warm.

But following an innovative partnership between the Tau family, their Housing New Zealand landlord and Sustainability Trust, the Tau children are excited to be moving back into their own bedrooms.

When the Taus were referred to Sustainability Trust in August 2015 by their community nurse, four of the children had severe eczema and asthma.

Both these conditions are among a range of serious health issues associated with living in cold, damp, mouldy housing.

Sustainability Trust specialises in energy efficiency and healthy homes. Among their community programmes they run Warm Fuzzies Wellington, for families with serious health conditions caused by their unhealthy homes.

A two-hour home assessment by Warm Fuzzies Advisor Miranda Struthers diagnosed the Tau family home with low indoor temperatures, sub-standard insulation, insufficient heating, inadequate curtains all causing high power bills.

The family were using the oven to heat the house as they had no other heating source, and this was driving up their energy costs.

The Tau’s landlord is Housing New Zealand, which Sustainability Trust has been working successfully with for 18 months. This partnership is providing a successful safety net for hundreds of Wellington region’s most vulnerable families.

For each home Sustainability Trust assesses, they provide a full report with prioritised recommendations to the landlord, and a separate list of energy-use recommendations to the tenants.

“Housing New Zealand have been doing a great job of getting their properties into a good condition for the tenants we work with. I see a lot of sub-standard housing, so it’s good to see responsible landlords like HNZ taking their responsibilities seriously,” says Struthers.

“Sustainability Trust strongly supports the implementation of a housing warrant of fitness so all landlords, private and public, know exactly what their responsibilities are. We also place great value in providing tenants with the ‘driving instructions’ for their home, so they can take control of their heating, ventilation, and energy use.”

As well as a new heat pump and upgraded insulation organised by their Tenancy Manager, the Tau family have received free curtains from Sustainability Trust’s Curtain Bank.

Teokotai reports that with the improvements and a much better personal understanding of energy use habits in the home, the house is much drier and easier to heat, with more manageable power bills.

The family is also healthier, and make many less doctor’s visits.

“The house is much warmer now, with the new insulation, and the children can sleep in their own rooms. We don’t get sick so often, and everyone is sleeping much better,” Teokotai says.